


Quiet as the wind

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: LL One year anniversary [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, Adorable, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Bonding, Cute, Fluff, Friendship, Kid Fic, Kidfic, Life lessons fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 05:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: After a hard day of learning how to be ninja's Iruka and his friends go out to have some fun, Iruka gets to show of his tree climbing abilities to his friends. Iruka also learns what gravity is when he falls out of said tree while showing off his tree climbing abilities.





	Quiet as the wind

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the one year anniversary celebration for the main story Life Lessons. I hope you all enjoy this and if you haven't read the main story. GO READ IT!

Iruka hung upside down from the tree a wide grin on his face, even the pounding in his skull from hanging like that for too long couldn’t take away the sheer glee he felt. It wasn’t often that he got the best of his friends, but at the moment he was making them look like fools. Izumo was pouting below him, constantly calling out how it wasn’t fair that he could do that. By that the boy meant be able to climb trees and hang upside down by his knees while they had to stare up at him from the ground. Mizuki was looking on with an air of disdain and boredom, though he refused to leave because of it. Iruka secretly believed it was because he was actually curious about how Iruka had managed to climb the tree without chakra. Kotetsu was the only one who was trying to reach him, first by jumping. Didn’t even come close. Then by climbing the tree. He was failing miserably. Iruka just laughed as he continued to stare upside down at his friends.

“C’mon Iruka that’s not fair.”

Iruka couldn’t shrug at his friends what with gravity holding him down, but he could call back. “You beat me at target practice the other day.”

“So?”

“So it’s fair that I can do this and you can’t.”

Izumo gave him a put out look. “You can improve your target practice though, you have Wolf.”

The derisive snort from Mizuki was ignored by the boys as Iruka called back. “And you can learn to climb trees.”

Izumo huffed. “No I can’t.”

“Sure you can. It’s easy.” The boy didn’t look like he actually believed his friend, so with a sigh Iruka hoisted himself back up onto the branch. Held on for dear life until the blood had settled once more in his body, then proceeded to climb back down the trunk of the tree. Once he was on stable ground again did he turn to his friends and quite proudly state.

“I’m going to teach you.”

Izumo crowed in delight, Kotetsu looked pleased to hear that Iruka was willing to teach them all. Mizuki still looked bored, though Iruka could tell now that he was curious even if the boy wouldn’t admit to it. 

“Alright so you grab onto the lowest branch you can.”

“What if there aren’t any? You didn’t grab onto one to climb this tree.” Izumo pointed out.

Iruka paused to think a moment. “You grab the nearest branch, but if there isn’t one available you can do two things. Either you climb the trunk until you can reach one or you pick another tree.”

Mizuki snorted. “Idiot.”

Iruka glanced towards him unsure if he was the one being called stupid or not, Izumo glared back at the other boy regardless of who the insult was leveraged at. With their attention on himself Mizuki clarified for their benefit.

“If you have to climb a tree like this in the first place your obviously going to die.”

“Why do you say that?” Kotetsu intervened before Izumo could start shouting, something they all knew he was about to do. Luckily Kotetsu was skilled enough to know when to intervene.

Mizuki sighed. “Do you honestly think another shinobi won’t just climb up after you OR just climb the tree with chakra? Any shinobi will know a variety of ways to reach you, climbing a tree isn’t going to save your life. It’ll just waste time and make you an easy target.”

Kotetsu had to admit that it was a good response, though he’d never tell the obstinate boy. Iruka however had no problems with speaking up about the purpose for climbing trees.

“This isn’t really meant for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well it’s not meant for trying to escape other shinobi, it’s for fun or I guess for hunting if your into that.” Iruka made a bleck face at the thought of such a thing which was laughed at by Izumo.

“Yeah Mizuki see it’s for fun.”

The boy rolled his eyes, muttering once more under his breath how they were all idiots. Kotetsu shrugged in reply as he moved to try once more to climb the tree, this time with Iruka watching him carefully to see if he was doing it right. Apparently he wasn’t.

“Uh no.” Iruka shook his head. “You have to hug the tree.”

“Yeah Ko hug it.” Izumo laughed.

Kotetsu gave Iruka a flat look which had the other boy smiling. They both chose to ignore Izumo and focus on trying to get Kotetsu up the tree. “Uh so just use your legs to give yourself leverage and reach up with your hands. Then one leg at a time try to inch yourself upwards, make sure you keep a good hold on the tree. Otherwise you’ll just slide back down to the ground and get splinters.”

“Splinters? Man that sucks.” Izumo whined.

Iruka smiled over to his other friend after seeing Kotetsu try once more to climb the tree. Mizuki was watching on silently, ignoring Izumo’s whining as he took in the sight of Kotetsu attempting to climb. He wasn’t doing any better despite Iruka’s “tips”. Shaking his head he muttered.

“This is a waste of time.”

Izumo spun around and glared. “Then go do something else.” 

“And miss you all being idiots? Your just going to get splinters, Iruka’s the only one who can do that.” He waved his hand towards the tree Kotetsu was trying to find. “Not that it’s useful.” He tacked on.

Iruka sighed. “It’s for fun Mizuki.” He explained once more, this time some irritation actually filtering into his voice.

He got an eye roll for his trouble. “It’s pointless, we should be focused on training.”

Izumo huffed. “We’re out of school for the day, why would we do more?”

“Your an idiot.”

“Shut up!”

Mizuki ignored the other boys attempts to silence him. “You’re never going to graduate if you’re not willing to train outside of school and I’ve seen how you do in school. You need all the practice you can get.”

Izumo lunged at the other boy and the pair went to the ground, the ensuing scuffle was full of curses along with various kicks and punches as the two boys wrestled.

“Ko...Should we d-”

“Leave em.” Kotetsu called back. “How do I do this again?”

Iruka smiled at the older boy, laughing when Kotetsu didn’t even bother to turn around to see the ongoing fight. Coming closer he showed Kotetsu how he climbed by doing just that, climbing the tree. It was easier for him seeing as he’d done it for a few years now, once he was perched on a tree branch he motioned for Kotetsu to follow him. Kotetsu gave him a wary look, but tried nonetheless. Iruka gave him encouragement all while staring off at the still fighting friends. 

Both Mizuki and Izumo were roughened up by now and he’d distinctly heard Mizuki shout out a fearsome curse when Izumo bit him. Iruka couldn’t help but snicker as he watched Izumo fight dirty, not that he blamed the boy. 

Mizuki was rough on a good day, now that he was mad he was being brutal. Izumo already had a bloody nose and if the two continued it was only going to get worse. Sighing he left the two boys to their scuffle, looking back down to see if Kotetsu had made any progress. Iruka shook his head when he saw that Kotetsu hadn’t managed to climb the tree at all. The other boy was picking what he assumed was splinters out of his hand.

“You could try again.” He encouraged his friend.

Kotetsu shook his head. “Nah, it’ll just make my hands sore and we have weapons practice tomorrow.”

Iruka gave a nod, he understood. No one wanted to make a fool of themselves when it came to weapons practice, having your peers watch you make the target or in some cases not make it was a big deal. Some children were better than others, but Iruka knew how much it hurt to hear other children say how much of a failure you were. Iruka still had doubts on how good he might do tomorrow, even with his practice sessions with Wolf. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Iruka moved to climb back down. They still had to break up Izumo and Mizuki and then decide on something that they all could do together. His hand was on the branch about to slide down around the trunk when there was a thunk against the tree which startled him into letting go. Letting out a shocked scream Iruka made a harsh grunting sound when he fell to the hard earth, the previous shouting came to a sudden stop.

“IRUKA!” 

Iruka couldn’t breath, his lungs were tight and refused to bring in air. Kotetsu was a blurry shape above him as his eyes watered.

“Iruka are you alright?” The boys voice was panicked after watching him fall from so high up the tree.

Iruka coughed as he fought to bring in air, his chest seized up from the harsh blow. Refusing to allow him to take a deeper breath even though it felt as if his lungs were starving.

“Iruka I’m so sorry, Mizuki threw me against the tree a-”

“Shut up you idiot, it’s not my fault. If you knew how to fight worth a damn this wouldn’t have happened.”

Izumo was quick to retort, it just wasn’t with words. Kotetsu glared after the pair when they devolved into more hitting. Crouching down he gave Iruka a sympathizing look. “You okay?”

Iruka gave a short jerky nod, his eyes still trailing tears as he took small shuddering breaths. His lungs slowly releasing the pressure from his fall, though it didn’t feel nearly as fast as Iruka wanted it to. Kotetsu patted him on the shoulder.

“I’m going to go break those two up alright?”

Iruka gave another choppy nod and watched on from the ground as Kotetsu disappeared from his vision. Iruka lay there staring up at the sky, focusing solely on the task of bringing in more oxygen to his starved body. The impromptu reunion to the ground hadn’t been part of his plan for the day. One thing he did know was that it had hurt and he had no desire to do that again. The sudden yelp of another boy brought a small grin to his face, Iruka knew that sound. That was the sound of Kotetsu beating on Izumo in some manner, Iruka didn’t normally approve of such violence between his friends. At the moment though, he was all for it. He relished the grunt that came from Mizuki shortly after followed by the boy cursing at Kotetsu. It was ignored. 

Their group had come to understand that half of what Mizuki said was insults and that it was best to ignore them, no matter how much they might hurt. Iruka still hadn’t figured out why Mizuki resorted to things like that, but he figured it was just how his friend was. Kinda like how Izumo was just a loud person, no matter what he or Kotetsu did they couldn’t get Izumo to be quiet. Their sensei had long since given up on the task and normally just sent scathing looks to the boy when he became too exuberant in class. When a shadow passed over his vision once more, Iruka gave a small smile.

“I think we’re all going home now.” Kotetsu muttered sourly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He wheezed. “I’m good.”

“Sure you are moron.” Mizuki called from just out of range of his sight earning another shouting match to start between him and Izumo.

Iruka gave Kotetsu an annoyed look which prompted the older boy to shout back. “Go home!”

“Whatever.”

Kotetsu rolled his eyes as he glanced back down to Iruka. “Do you need help getting home?”

Iruka shook his head. “Nah, I’m going to relax a while.”

“That’s code for he can’t get up.” Izumo helpfully supplied as he came into view. The boy was bloody from his tussle with Mizuki, blood staining his skin from where it had come from his nose. It painted a clear picture of how the fight had gone, Iruka only hoped that Izumo had somehow managed to give as good as he got.

“We can help you get home.” The boy offered only to receive a shake of Iruka’s head.

“No, I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry about knocking you from the tree.”

Iruka smiled. “It’s okay.”

Izumo didn’t look quite so convinced, but didn’t comment to the contrary. He glanced towards Kotetsu long enough to tell their friend. “I’m heading home then.”

“Alright.”

“Aren’t you coming?” Izumo gave Kotetsu a look.

Kotetsu smirked down at Iruka in a knowing way. “Yeah I’m coming.” Rolling his eyes as Izumo started to walk away the boy promised Iruka. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“Yep.”

“Ko c’mon.”

Sighing Kotetsu waved at Iruka right before walking off, Iruka tilted his head to the side to watch the pair leave. They were practically glued at the hip most days and it wasn’t surprising that Izumo wanted Kotetsu to walk home with him. Iruka sighed as he re-orientated his head to stare up at the sky, it was a nice day and with nothing better to do Iruka settled in to relax under the bright sunny sky.

 

***********

 

Iruka made a face as he came awake, the gentle jostling which had disturbed his nap receded as he came awake. He gasped upon seeing the mask looming over him.

“Wolf.” He pouted.

The teen chuckled. “Hey.”

“You scared me.” The boy pouted.

“Yeah I kinda got that from the jump.” 

“What are you doing here?”

“The bigger question is what are you doing here.” The Anbu asked with a tilt of his head. “I thought you were going to train with your friends after school.”

Iruka leveraged himself up onto his elbows as the teen pulled out of his space, the Anbu had moved to kneel beside him as he did so. “I did...Well sorta.” The boy smirked. “We didn’t really do much training.”

“Not surprised to hear that.”

Iruka huffed back at the Anbu. “I tried to teach them how to climb trees.”

“Oh? How’d that go?”

“Not well.” Iruka admitted with a frown. “They kinda suck at it.”

Kakashi laughed as he heard the boy mutter about his friends failures. “Well I’m sure they’ll come around.”

Iruka shrugged. “Kotetsu was the only one who really gave it a try. Izumo just pouted about not being able to do it.”

“Mmhmm was Mizuki not with you today?” Kakashi tilted his head, it was unusual for their little group not to be all together. Though it happened from time to time, Kakashi often questioned whether or not Mizuki would be phased out of their group for his harsh comments.

“He was here.” Iruka nodded. “He didn’t try though, he just said it was stupid because it wouldn’t keep us safe from other ninja.”

“Was that the point?”

“No.”

“Why were you climbing the tree?”

“To have fun.” Iruka replied passively. “We tried to tell him that, but he wouldn’t listen.” He ducked his head a bit as he admitted. “Izumo and him got into a fight.”

The snort the Anbu gave had Iruka smirking up at the taller figure. “I’m not surprised to hear that either, how’d it end?”

“With me falling out of a tree.”

The Anbu blinked at him. “What now?”

“With me falling out of a tree.” Iruka repeated though this time he backed it up by pointing at the tree he’d fallen from. Wolf glanced at it, his head craning up to see the nearest branch that the boy could have fallen from. Sighing he turned his head back to Iruka.

“You fell.”

“Mizuki threw Izumo into the tree as I was trying to climb down, it startled me.”

“And you let go.” Wolf sighed. “Are you hurt?”

Iruka shook his head. “It knocked the wind out of me.”

“Alright. Why’d you stick around? I’m assuming the other brat’s went home.”

Iruka snickered at the Anbu calling his friends brats, he gave a nod. “Yeah they went home and I stayed cause I couldn’t breath yet.”

Kakashi snorted. “They left you like that?”

“I told them it was okay.”

“Of course you did.” The man let and exasperated breath.

Iruka tilted his head. “What’s that mean?”

“Nothing.” 

Iruka didn’t quite believe his Anbu, but by now he’d learned not to question him. Wolf didn’t give him answers to half the questions he asked and by his tone this was going to be one of those times. The Anbu drew him out from his inner musings by asking another question.

“So you fell asleep while learning to breathe again.”

Iruka smiled. “Yeah.”

“Well are you up for some real training?”

Iruka’s grin widened. “Yes.”

“Get to your feet then and we’ll see if I can’t knock the wind out of you.”

Iruka pouted as he climbed to his feet. “That’s mean.”

“Ah ah ah.” Wolf shook his finger at him. “You didn’t complain when you fell out of the tree did you?”

Iruka huffed. “No.”

“Then there will be no complaining about what I decide to do to you.”

“I don’t think that’s the same thing.”

“It is.” The Anbu replied in a factual tone.

Iruka gave him a curious look which was steadfastly ignored. “Well come on then.” Wolf waved him forward as he started walking further into the tree’s.

“ Where are we going? What are we doing?”

“We’re going to play the quiet game and then I’m going to show you.”

Iruka huffed, he was well aware of what the ‘quiet game’ meant. “Wolf.” He groaned in complaint.

“Iruka.” The man taunted back.

Smirking the pre-genin chased after the older boy, sidling up to walk beside him. “Are we going far?”

“Shh.”

“Are we going to do something cool?”

“Shh.”

“Is it an Anbu thing?”

“Shh.”

Iruka huffed. “I hate the quiet game.”

“Shh.”

 


End file.
